As the soccer season kicks off, there’s much to look forward to as the Varsity team progresses and grows as players with their new coach. With many expectations this year as the program moves forward, new staff and players move up to play at the Varsity level as they said goodbye to last year’s seniors. 

The team is now led by Coach Álvaro Blázquez Gutiérrez who has been coaching since 2018 and played soccer at Concordia College-New York. According to the players on the team, he has an intense passion for soccer and believes it has given him more than anything. 

He is currently coaching the SF United club team. The impact on the players has already been shown as the Girls Varsity team defeated their last two competitors, Bay School 2-0 and El Camino 5-0 in the Firebird Classic.

Varsity player Caroline O’Connell ’25 is ecstatic about the upcoming season and can’t wait to get out on a pitch. 

She said, “Riordan girls soccer feels like a family more than just another school team. Every practice we put our all into and have fun at the same time. It is a great experience.” 

O’Connell and other players are ecstatic about the changes that they are experiencing every day as the program grows. They are still actively going through trial and error as they find what works for the program and their path to success on the field.

Though the program is not yet in the WCAL, the team is striving to make a run for the highly competitive league within the next one to two years.  

The girl’s soccer program is a recent installment to the wide array of Riordan athletics, beginning with the implementation of Riordan going co-ed, according to Coach Nicole Morello. These recent developments will be not only in the interests of the program itself but also Riordan’s profile as a school while having to go up against other schools with the likes of St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral.

She said, “I think with the addition of our girl’s soccer team in the WCAL, it will bring even more attention to Riordan.”